166 Euclid Avenue.

CLEVELAND, O., Feb. 13th, 1896.

To the Junior Class of the

Cleveland University of Medicine and Surgery:

In reply to your communication of yesterday, requesting the publication of a short autobiography, I will do so with pleasure as soon as my time will permit.

With very kind regards to each member of the class of '97, with the very best wishes for the continued prosperity of the University, a University which is your prospective and my Alma Mater, believe me,

Yours very truly,

H. F. BIGGAR.

bamilton Fisk Biggar.

AMILTON FISK BIGGAR was born at Oakville, Ont.,

H Canada, March 15th, 1839. A history of his

ancestors may be found in a work entitled, "Scottish Queens," in which mention is made of Flamingus, a Fleming who flourished in 1140, commonly called Baldwin de Biggar, the first Biggar recorded in history. Hugh of Biggar was his son. Sir Nicholas de Biggar flourished in 1292. The Lairds of Biggar held offices of great dignity in the Royal Household of Scotland, as Lord High Chamberlain, whose ancestral seat was at Woolmet, four miles west of Edinburg, now the seat of the Earles of Weymess. Major Biggar, in the reign of Charles II, was a Royal Commissioner to investigate the charge of witchcraft against certain people.

The etymology of Biggar, according to the learned George Chambers, is to be traced to the Scotch-Irish words, Big, Soft and Thir Land. That is land lying near a river (as Biggar is on the Biggar Burn) or marsh land or moss.

Another author says that Big refers to a coarse kind of barley called Bigg or Bear and Thir land, in Bigg Thir or Barley land. Another definition is the Anglo-Saxon, Big or Bige, a corner of tuming, and that Bigthir (Biggar) was so called from the remarkable bend which the Clyde takes at that place.

The motto of the Biggar crest is "Giving and Forgiving."

There are eighteen different ways of spelling Biggar, as follows:

Bigger, Biggair, Bigyar, Bigair, Bygair, Bigart, Biggart, Biger, Bigar, Bigaret, Biggar, Bygare, Byger, Beggert, Bigre, Begar, Beggar, O'Bearga. His grandfather, Robert Biggar, was born in Dumfries, and educated for a minister of the Scottish Church. He was married to Mary Lawder and blest with eleven children. After leaving Scotland, Mr. Biggar settled at Queenston, Ont., Canada, where his son Hamilton, the father of the subject of this personal sketch was born in 1806. Later the family moved to Mt. Pleasant, near Brantford. Rev. Hamilton Biggar was for many years a minister of the Wesleyan Methodist church, and married Eliza Phelps Racey, daughter of James Racey, Esq., of Brantford. They also had a large family of ten children, of which Hamilton Fisk Biggar was the fourth.

Hamilton Fisk Biggar, after attending the public schools until he was eleven years of age, became an apprentice to a merchant. After completing his apprenticeship he left this vocation, entered the grammar school at Brantford, and after two years' attendance, at his father's urgent request, again engaged in mercantile pursuits, but found them so distasteful that he determined to obtain a collegiate education to prepare himself for a professional life. He matriculated at the University of Victoria, where he graduated as Bachelor of Arts in 1863, and immediately began the study of law in the office of John Cameron, Esq., at Brantford. He passed his primary examination in law at Osgood

Hall, Toronto. A year at law convinced him that the profession of law was not in many respects suited to his trend of mind. He began the study of medicine, came to Cleveland in the year 1864, and registered as a student of the Homeopathic Hospital College, now the Cleveland University of Medicine and Surgery. After graduation he attended some of the leading hospitals at New York and Philadelphia, returned to Cleveland in July, 1866, and entered upon the practice of the profession in which he has gained eminence, and in which he has been both active and successful for a period of over twenty-five years.

On February 25, 1870, he was married to Miss Sue Miles Brooks, daughter of Mr. W. B. Brooks, of Columbus, O. By this marriage have been born four children: Rachel Racey Biggar, Hamilton Fisk Biggar, William Brooks Biggar and Sue Racey Biggar.

In 1867 the chair of Clinical Surgery was created, which was quite an innovation for a homeopathic college. For seven years Dr. Biggar was Professor of Anatomy and Clinical Surgery, then for ten years of Clinical Surgery with Operations, and for the last eight years of Surgical Diseases of Women and Clinical Surgery, in the Cleveland Homeopathic College, now the University of Medicine and Surgery. For many years he was Registrar of the College.

For eleven years the doctor was the physician and surgeon of the Cleveland Workhouse. During his early practice he was for a short period surgeon to the Cleveland Grays.

For two consecutive years he was offered the chair of Surgery in the Homeopathic Department of the University of Michigan. Many former patients now living in New York have frequently and earnestly solicited his removal there, whose patronage and influence would at once insure a commanding practice. For many years he was a member of the Medical Staff of the Huron Street Hospital, and was honored by being the President of the Academy of Medicine and Surgery, of which he was one of the founder members.

Never was the doctor an office seeker. When nominated for the Presidency of the American Institute of Homeopathy in 1881, at Brighton Beach, though the chances for his election were excellent, he declined to be a candidate for this honorable office, preferring the activity of a useful member in the ranks than the attaining of the highest honor which the Institute could confer.

Before the present building of the Huron Street Hospital was begun, the control of Charity Hospital together with all clinics was offered to the doctor by the former Bishop of the Diocese, who was not only a patron but a very warm friend.

This magnanimous offer of the Bishop and Mother Superior was reluctantly, but of necessity, declined, for unfortunately the existing factions in the homeopathic profession prevented the securing of the undivided co-operation of the fraternity.

A few years ago he was entrusted by one of our multi-millionaires with the formation of a modern